The present invention relates generally to radiant gas heaters or burners of the type having a refractory burner face and more particularly to arrangements for mounting such heaters in operating disposition.
Such radiant heaters basically utilize a refractory burner face in a panel, tile or mat form fitted in the open mouth of a burner housing which defines a plenum for containing and supplying a combustible gas and air mixture to the face. In operation, the combustion mixture is continuously passed through the face and burns at the outward surface thereof, normally in the form of a very small flame which covers the entire face and which reaches rather high temperatures to produce a continuous radiant heat surface over the entire exposed area of the face. Representative examples of such heaters are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,191,659; 3,407,023; 3,407,024; 4,189,297; 4,255,123; 4,272,237; 4,272,238; 4,413,976; and 4,416,618.
Conventionally, such radiant heaters are put to a diverse variety of uses. One typical use of these heaters is to dry moving webs of textile fabric following various wet treatment operations thereon. Typically, such heaters are made in relatively small rectangular shapes to facilitate selective mounting of a plurality of the heaters in assembly with their respective burner faces contiguous to provide an effectively continuous heater surface of the dimension required for a given use of the heaters. These heaters are ordinarily provided with mounting legs which simply are bolted rigidly in place to a support structure in an assembly installation, which disadvantageously requires a considerable amount of down time in the operation of the heater assembly whenever it is necessary to remove and repair or replace a malfunctioning or damaged heater. Most of the development work in this industry has been devoted to improving the design of the heater structure itself to reduce the incidence of heater malfunction, as is illustrated by the above-listed patents, and there therefore exists a need for a better system of mounting such heaters to facilitate easy removal and replacement when such becomes necessary.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an improved mounting arrangement for radiant heaters of the relevant type which enables them to be releasably mounted in operative disposition for rapid and secure installation and removal without the use of bolts or other fasteners and without requiring special tools, thereby to minimize heater down time when repair or replacement of heaters is required.